Pablo Neruda: All Poets the Poet Open Access

Although Neruda won the Nobel Prize in 1971, there are few monographs in English on his work despite the many translations available. Riess’ 1972 study on the Canto general is a competent structural analysis, and Neruda is one of four poets dealt with in Willard’s 1970 Testimony of the Invisible Man. Bizzarro’s study is noteworthy not only because it is in English, but also because it is one of the most directly sociopolitical analyses of Neruda; therefore, it stands in sharp contrast to Willard’s existentialism and Riess’ structuralism. Bizzarro is anaesthetic, to the extent that Neruda’s poetry is assayed in terms of its treatment of sociopolitical topics, rather than with reference to rhetorical, stylistic, or structural accomplishments. By contrast to recent research by “committed” critics who nevertheless are using structuralist models for dealing with the issues of poetic discourse, Bizzarro’s study represents a return to a more thematic or contenidista approach that may assist the non-literary reader to “interpret” Neruda’s message but will not contribute particularly to the critic’s interest in the texture of his poetry as a unique structuring of meaning.